The Perfect Realtor Headshot: 25 Ideas &Tips from the Pros

I was featured in an article for Fit Small Business and my insights are below highlighted in yellow on how to practice posing for your head shot.   The link to the actual article is at the end of this blog post.

The Perfect Realtor Headshot: 
25 Ideas &Tips from the Pros

By Emile L'Eplattenier on June 13, 2016

Your realtor head shot should be the keystone of your personal brand. If you are spending money to advertise your profile on places like Zillow Premier Agent, it’s even more important.

In this article, you’ll learn 25 tips from professional photographers, body language experts, and data from photo feeler, to make sure your realtor head shot is sending the right message about your brand.  For our industry, that message should be that you are trustworthy, competent, and confident enough to help people through one of the most important decisions of their lives.  

How to Look Trustworthy in Your Realtor Headshot

1. Smile

According to a study published in the journal of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, people who looked happier in photographs were viewed as more trustworthy, while people who looked unhappier were viewed as less trustworthy. Both happy looking and unhappy looking people were viewed as equally competent, but when asked who they would choose to be their financial advisor, test subjects chose the happier looking person every time.

Studies from photofeeler.com came up with virtually identical results; people who smiled in their headshot were seen as far more likable and influential than those that didn’t, but only very slightly more competent. The takeaway here should be obvious.

General posing tips

21. Practice Your Pose before Your Shoot

Body language expert Patti Wood, MA, CSP recommends practicing several different poses in the mirror before your shoot to find one that fits your personality. Remember that crossing your arms can make you appear powerful, but closed off or defensive. If you find crossing your arms fits your personality best, Patti recommends crossing your arms loosely.

The Bottom Line

A great head shot should be the keystone of your personal branding efforts. Taking the time and effort to hire a professional photographer, working on your confidence, smile, wardrobe and pose, can offer a great ROI, and put you one step further down to path to achieving your goals.

Article link:  http://fitsmallbusiness.com/realtor-headshot/

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

How Do You Look and Feel More Confident? 6 Tips to Confidence.

Tip 1
Imagine what you want the other person to feel. 
So often we are thinking of how nervous or anxious or angry we are in tense situations. Sometimes it helps to think about the other person and how they feel now and how you would like them to feel as a result of interacting with you. To gain confidence and keep yourself from getting stressed in tense situations like arguments, job interviews, presentations or a first date, take the focus off yourself for a moment and imagine the emotions you want the other person or people to have about you and deliver the body language that elicits those emotions in the OTHER person.

Let's take the excitement example to help you learn this technique. Imagine you are talking to someone and you want the other person to feel excitement. For example, you can act out giving someone good news about your work, your product or your services or what you did over the weekend.  Right now, imagine his or her body language as you share the information. Put the focus on them as you imagine it and try focusing on them as you speak. 

Tip 2
Be UP!
Build confidence by moving and holding your body “UP!” If you follow me you know that I created the label UP!  to describe all upward posture and movements and facial expressions such as, head held up, gestures with up motions. When we are happy our body naturally moves up and holds itself up.

When you hold or move your body the way you would like to feel the posture actually sends a message to the brain, “Hey I am feeling great, positive and up.” As you hold your body the little pharmacy in your brain starts producing the chemicals that match that state, (in as little as a 40th of a second.) and pumps them into your body and you begin to feel up. The combination of your up posture and movement up and chemical up state is felt by the interviewer. They start to give you attentive nonverbal cues and that makes you feel more confident. I call this the fake it till you make it technique. You only have to fake it for a fraction of a second before it actually effects how you feel.

Tip 3
Gesture

Power is also communicated by gestures. Research shows that charismatic leaders use gestures four times as many as others do when they talk. Charismatic speakers from Bill Clinton and Martin Luther King from Cesar Chavez to your favorite motivational speaker punctuate almost every sentence with a strong gesture. 

Tip 4
Use lots of positive words when you speak. 
When we use positive words we can alter how our brain functions by increasing cognitive reasoning and strengthening areas in our frontal lobes. Research shows that using positive words in your life more than negative ones can kick-start the motivational centers of the brain, propelling them to action. So think about the positive words you want people to feel and start sprinkling them into your conversations. I don't mean you need to say, "Awesome!" every few minutes but start peppering you speech with positive words.

Tip 5
Choose how YOU want to feel. 
You chose a word that expresses how you want your listener to feel, then choose a word that expresses how YOU  would like to feel in a particular situation  and then get into a posture that matches it. So if your word is CONFIDENT you put your body in an open position, arms away from your body, legs uncrossed, shoulder back, heart forward, extending eye-contact for as long as three seconds, and make your voice go down at the end of sentences. By the way, we tend to tighten the vocal chords when we are tense and the high, sometimes screechy sound does not sound powerful so move up your body language but bring down your voice.

I shared this tip with one of my coaching clients and had him act out his word for a job interview.  He chose the word Excitement. He smiled and laughed as he finished doing it. He said that he didn't feel excited in the moment before he started moving his body, he felt afraid. But he said, :"... when I did it was weird" "I brought my shoulders back and smiled and put some energy in my voice. I really did get excited" "It felt like I had just had a big cup of Starbucks."

Tip 6
Imagine you are confident and successful. 
We tend to rehearse and practice our failure. Instead practice your success. Replace any negative thoughts and movies you have in your head about how you will be and how things will go with a new thought or movie. or example, replace the thought, “ I am going to mess this up and forget what to say" with your magic word. “I am going to be CONFIDENT and remember what I want to say.” If in your failure movie you look down and mumble, rehearse your new movie with your UP! body language and gestures and the listener nodding and smiling and loving you.

Email Patti at patti@pattiwood.net

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Discover Your Laughing Style

You can discover your laughing style by taking the "Laughter Survey" on Survey Monkey at the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/G6RBW56

Once you have taken the Laughter Survey check back on the blog shortly to view the Answer Key to get your results.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Laughter Is The Best Medicine - Take Time To Laugh!

Here are some funny lines that will bring a SMILE to your face!

That moment when you spell a word so wrong that even autocorrect is saying, “I’ve got nothing man!”

Yes officer I saw the speed limit sign, I just didn’t see you.

My favorite people are the ones that can make anything funny, just by the laughing.

My bed is a magical place where I suddenly remember everything I was supposed to do.

I love it when someone’s laugh is funnier than the joke.

I didn’t fall, the floor was lonely so I gave it a hug.

My brain in the morning, ahh  where is my coffee, where are my shoes, where are my keys,
My brain at night, I wonder why the earth was placed exactly here and provide the perfect place to sustain human life.

Nothing compares to the stomach ache you get from laughing too hard with your best friends.

I hate it when I am taking a drink and all the ice attacks my face.

I hate waking up from an awesome dream and forgetting what happened.

That awkward moment when your sarcasm is so advanced that people think you are stupid.

Having plans sounds like a good idea until you have to put on clothes and leave your house.

That most annoying moment when the most annoying person is complaining about someone being annoying, in the same way they are annoying.

I am really good at stuff, until people watch me do that stuff.

The sole purpose of a child’s middle name is so that he can tell when he’s really in trouble.

The bedroom was clean until I had to decide what to wear.

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Be Wise and Brave and Do Not Fear Change.

Be Wise, Be Brave and Do Not Fear Change

• May we be wise enough to recognize the illusions that make us suffer. 
• May we be brave enough to let go of them. 
• May you not fear change, difference, infirmity or death. 
• May you be free of fear and the need to control life. 
• May we together live mindfully in the present and enjoy every moment. 

A few years ago I had plans to see a dear friend of mine while I was in Florida working, and very sadly just before we were going to see each other he passed away suddenly of a heart failure at just 50 years old.

The quote above was on the signature line of his last email to me about getting together.

He certainly lived by its message.

Perhaps you may want read this quote again and take one phrase from it and really think about it this week. Or maybe you may want to email it to a friend or put it up on pintreast. 

I am reblogging this quote today in honor of Russ Crumley. 

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.